Sunday, January 25, 2015

Mugshots of locally born Tasmanian prisoner James Geary (1844-1897?) from 1874-1893Left: Photographed by Thomas Nevin, 20th February 1874 at the Police Office, Hobart GaolCentre: Photographed by Constable John Nevin, at the Hobart Gaol on 12th November 1889Right: Photographed by [unknown] at Police Office, Hobart on 25th April 1893

The Rap Sheet 1865-1896
James Geary was born in Hobart to Ellen and Stephen Geary, a labourer, on 12th March 1844. His career in convicted crime began with horse-stealing in 1865, at 20yrs old. He was photographed by Thomas Nevin in 1874 at the Hobart Gaol when he was 30yrs old. His next extant mugshot was taken by Constable John Nevin at the Hobart Gaol in 1889 when he was registered as 45 yrs old. His last police photograph was taken (by unknown) at the Police Office, Hobart in 1893 when he was 49 yrs old. Date of death unknown, possibly 1897 (see below),

The first mugshot 1874 by T. J. Nevin
This is one of Thomas J. Nevin's finely produced albumen prints of Tasmanian prisoners taken in the 1870s for the Colonial government, typical of his commercial studio practice.

James Geary absconded from the Hobart Commissariat Stores, police gazette notice of 22nd April 1870. He was serving a sentence of 6 yrs for cattle-stealing, tried 7th July 1868, Hobart.

James Geary was arrested by Sub-Inspector Dorsett, 20 May 1870. Thomas Nevin often accompanied Sub-Inspector Dorsett as assistant bailiff, a service he continued through to 1886.

Geary was photographed by Nevin on being discharged from the Police Office on 20th February 1874.

But Geary reoffended. Warrant for his arrest issued on 6th November 1874

Geary was arrested again on 13th November, 1874, Supt Propsting etc

Geary was arraigned and photographed again by Nevin at the Hobart Supreme Court on 1st December, 1874.

James Geary served a short sentence of less than two years at the Port Arthur prison, arriving there on the 1 August 1868: he was "transferred to the House of Correction for Males Hobart Town to complete his sentence" on 28 March 1870, per this record signed James Boyd Civil Commandant. He was photographed in the last weeks of incarceration at the Hobart Gaol by Thomas J. Nevin prior to discharge in February 1874.

The 1874 photograph of James Geary, aged 30 yrs, taken by Thomas Nevin is a finely produced albumen print exhibiting the commercial portraiture techniques typical of Nevin's work for police in this decade.

Hobart Gaol 1889: Larceny
However, when James Geary was arrested again for larceny in 1889, aged 45 yrs, his mugshot taken at the Hobart Gaol was less than appealing, and more consistent with the rough and ready values of prisoner identification photographs produced everywhere by 1900, including the full-face gaze. This mugshot, pasted to his criminal sheet, was taken by Thomas Nevin's brother Constable John Nevin, at the Hobart Gaol on 12th November 1889 when Geary was transferred there from the police office at Deloraine, northern Tasmania.

Ref: TAHO GD6719James Geary p. 137

Police Office, Hobart 1893
Convicted and incarcerated for a series of minor offences at the Police Office, Hobart, James Geary was photographed in 1893 at 49yrs old, looking rather healthier in this mugshot than in 1889. He married 44 year old widow Jane Saunders in 1894, his occupation listed as a 48 yr old labourer and bachelor. However, he may have died of heart disease one year after his last conviction, at Black Brush, Brighton, north of Hobart, in the house of John Samson. An inquest was held on 4th January, 1897, but the registration of his death on 2nd January at Black Brush gave his age as 43 yrs old rather than 49yrs, possibly because the date of his birth, as written on the record, states "not known". The Tasmanian police gazette published this same man's age as 40yrs old when the notice of the inquest was published on January 29th, 1897 (p. 18).

Even as late as 1893, the photographer at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart, where this photograph was taken, was still printing prisoner mugshots in the oval mount used by Thomas Nevin for his 1870s cartes-de-visite of prisoners at the Mayor's Court, MPO and Hobart Gaol.

Tasmanian police gazette listed this man's age as 40yrs old when the notice of the inquest was published on January 29th, 1897 (p. 18), and not 43yrs old which was listed at the inquest. If the same man, he was actually 49 yrs old,

Search

In his own words ...

“I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.The Mercury, 4 December 1880

"Defendant said that he was the father of a large number of children, and did not know which one was referred to. (Laughter.)"The Mercury, 11 August 1886

"Mr. Thos Nevin was under the impression that the police should be under stricter supervision."The Mercury, 19 July 1888.

Biography: Professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland.

Recent Posts

Our Fourteenth Anniversary 2019

Fourteen years ago (before 2005 actually) we started blogging about Tasmanian photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923). We look forward to another two years at least as the project draws closer to completion. Contributions and donations are most welcome, and many thanks for your involvement.

Notices

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A.H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

Our stats show heavy and repeated downloads pertaining to Nevin's prison photography. Please consult your institution's guidelines on student plagiarism and Amendments to the Copyright Act 2000. Every version of an article and image is printed and stored at the publishers. Take care to consult the URL of the post/article you wish to cite, especially if you are using RSS, caches, and readers as every entry is subject to UPDATING at any time. Do not make hard copies. Librarians please note: do not archive as preserved pages. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.